Cherub Supernatural Season 5, Episode 1
by sisterwinchester
Summary: “Cherub כרוב” Synopsis: After Sam unwittingly breaks the final seal and frees Lucifer from Hell, Castiel will be forced to transform into his true angelic appearance to protect Sam & Dean from certain death.


_Episode 5x01_

"_Cherub _**כרוב"**

_Synopsis:_

_After Sam unwittingly breaks the final seal and frees Lucifer from Hell, Castiel will be forced to transform into his true angelic appearance to protect Sam & Dean from certain death. _

The Prophet Chuck braced himself for whatever horrific end he was surely about to meet. Castiel stood next to Chuck, his arm across the man's chest. _Small comfort_, Chuck thought. As Chuck's house rattled and banged, he thought of his life and what a waste so much of it had been. Here he stood in his kitchen with an angel about to witness the wrath of his protector, an archangel. _If I had known how important I was, I would have done things a little differently. _

Frightening yellow light poured through his grimy kitchen window. Almost as quickly as it began it was over. At his side, Castiel exploded into fluorescent blue light and vanished. He was gone, the yellow light was gone, and all was quiet on the western front… for now, anyway.

"Sammy, we gotta get outta here." Dean grasped Sam by his sleeve and yanked.

_You set him free!_ The phrase rang incessantly through Sam's mind. He was in shock, couldn't grasp it, refused accept it. He was mesmerized by the brilliant white light that sprung forth from the marble floor of the chapel. Once again Sam felt a violent jerk and snapped to attention. He submitted to his brother's lead as Dean dragged Sam away from the white light and spun him around.

"We don't have a car. We don't have a damn car!" Dean looked this way and that in hope that a solution would present itself. Then he spotted Ruby's lifeless body on the floor.

"Sam, is Ruby's car here?" He shouted. The white light from the floor was accompanied by an ever growing ear splitting sound. _Demonic reverb,_ Dean though.

Dean punched Sam in the shoulder just hard enough to wake him up. Sam's eyes focused on Dean. He nodded. "Yeah, yeah."

Dean held out his hand to Sam for the keys. After several seconds, Dean gave up and began to search for the keys on Ruby's person. "What did you do with the keys, you skank?" He snarled as he patted down her corpse. "You probably swallowed them." He finally found them in her jacket pocket and retrieved them. He immediately noticed the logo on the silver colored key. Then he kicked her once hard in the face. "That's for making me drive a friggin' Ford." He turned quickly on his heel and in one smooth motion snatched Sam so hard he nearly fell, and the Winchester brothers burst through the chapel doors.

The high-pitched sound had reached ear splitting frequency now and echoed wildly down the hall behind the pair as they stepped out into the night. Dean got behind the wheel of Ruby's cheddar cheese colored Mach 1 with Sam close behind. The car roared into life and they were gone.

"How did you get here? Where's Cas?" Sam asked breathlessly.

"I don't know." Dean shook his head. "One minute I was standing in Bobby's house, the next I'm locked in some Louis the Fifteenth room having a tête-à-tête with Zachariah. He wouldn't let me leave. I kept trying to call you."

"I know," Sam interrupted quickly.

"Sam, I _am_ sorry." Dean said gravely.

Sam turned in his seat and glared at Dean. "Sorry for what, exactly? Calling me a monster or giving me a heads up that you're going to hunt me down and kill me?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Dean snapped.

"That message you left me." Sam's voice was taught with indignation.

Dean looked sternly at his brother. "I left you a message. But that's not what I said. Sammy, I called to tell you that I was sorry." He pointed at Sam, "Pissed, but sorry."

"Then how-?" Sam said. "Is it possible that someone changed the message?"

"Maybe it was Ruby. Could she have done something like that?"

"No," Sam said. "But I know who could."

"Who?" Dean asked.

"Angels," Sam said wryly.

"That makes perfect sense. Zack," Dean said the angel's name with disgust, "wants the apocalypse. He said it'll be paradise on earth. He said that he knew that you had to do-." Dean paused. "What you had to do. But that it was a _good_ thing. They were holding me there so that I couldn't stop you."

"Wait a second. Did Cas know?"

"That's why I'm here. Castiel found out what Zack was intending to do, that Lilith was the last seal. And he blasted us outta there. He used the same spell that Anna did and poof." Dean made a gesture with his hands. Dean went on to explain that he and Castiel appeared at Chuck's house. Then Castiel sent Dean to the abbey in Maryland to try and stop Sam.

"So Cas… _fell?"_ Sam asked in disbelief.

"Maybe" Dean said. He hadn't really thought about it yet. "I really don't know." Dean continued to speed over a narrow road that threaded through a blacked out forest. They had put less than ten miles behind them when car's engine seized. The headlights faded and they were plunged into darkness.

"What the hell?" Dean said as the car simply died in the middle of the road.

"He's coming," Sam said solemnly. _I can feel him,_ he thought but did not say.

Dean didn't bother asking "who". He already knew. They got out of the car and looked around at the darkness. Dean immediately began to take stock of his inventory: .45mm and the knife. Dean took out his gun and looked at it. "Can't shoot the devil, can I?" he smiled weakly at Sam.

Sam appeared to be in a trance once again. He seemed to be listening to something.

"Sam?" Dean hissed. "What's our game plan here?" His brother stood facing the road behind them, his lips parted slightly. "Sam!" Dean barked.

Sam snapped to attention. "Call Cas," he said.

"How? On his heavenly i-Phone?"

"Call _on_ him… you know, _however_ you do it."

Dean bobbed his head and said sarcastically, "Oh, ok." He rolled his eyes and thought about how long it had taken the last time he called Castiel for help. _Like we've got that kind of time._ "Let's grab what we can and get moving." Dean circled to the trunk and opened it. There lay the dead body of a young brunette woman dressed in scrubs. Dean jumped. "Who the hell is she?"

Sam pursed his lips. He had forgotten about her. "Don't ask."

Dean forced himself not to look at Sam. "Help me get her out of here," Dean said. Together, they pulled out the body and carried it several yards into the woods and left it. They hurried back to the trunk and peered inside. "No salt," Dean said.

"Obviously," Sam retorted.

"I just need a freaking _flashlight!"_ Dean shouted.

"In the glove box," Sam said and retrieved it. Dean slammed the trunk shut and began walking with Sam down the road.

"What's going on with you?" Dean asked. He shoved a finger at Sam. "And, don't freaking lie to me!"

Sam hesitated then said honestly, "I don't know how, but I can… I can feel him."

"_Feel him?"_ Dean repeated in an ironic tone.

"Yes, Dean. I can _feel_ him."

Dean rolled his eyes. Then he called out, "Cas?" _Nothing._ "Cas!" he said louder. He looked heavenward and changed his approach. "I'm asking for help, Castiel. Please help us." _Nothing._ "Screw you then," Dean said bitterly. They continued walking. Dean prayed silently for help… from anyone. For the moment, Dean didn't want to know if Sam was still feeling the devil.

A moment later, Sam's cell phone rang. The sound seemed unnaturally loud in the dead quiet of the Maryland forest. "It's Bobby," he said. "Hey, Bobby," Sam said into the phone. He listened for a moment then said, "Anna's at Bobby's."

Dean lit up for a moment but quickly dimmed as he wondered why she was there and not here, helping them.

"Bobby," Sam said. "I'm so sorry." He listened for a long moment then said, "We will." And then he hung up.

"Anna knows what's going on. She told Bobby everything. Bobby said that Cas gave her up to the Angel police but she managed to get away."

"So can she help us or not?" Dean snapped.

"No, I guess not." Sam reached out and touched Dean's arm. They both stopped walking. "Anna says that Bobby is in trouble. That's why she's there. She thinks that Zack is going to try and snatch Bobby to get you 'properly motivated'." Sam pursed his lips in disapproval.

Dean threw up his arms in frustration. "Just what the hell are we supposed to do? We are running from Lucifer himself with no way to defend ourselves. And the douches who got us into this have just left us here to die!" He cut wildly across the air with the flashlight.

"Let's just keep moving," Sam said. He was thinking practically now. _We'll just keep walking; we'll come to a town. We'll get a car. We'll drive to Bobby's. We'll live for one more day. _Then Sam _felt_ it again. He stumbled violently and landed on all fours. He looked up at Dean. "He's coming. _Right now,_ he's coming." Sam choked on the words.

And then the supersonic sound of Hell filled the air, filled their ears. Sam struggled up to his knees and covered his ears with his hands.

Seconds later, Dean joined him on the ground, brought down to his knees by the force of it. Through the noise Dean cried out with every fiber of his being, "Castiel!"

In a matter of seconds the forest and the road went from near pitch black to brilliant white. Sam and Dean attempted to look in the path of the sound and light but were struck blind and deaf. They fell to the ground and lay on their sides, completely conscious and aware… and frightened.

Inside his head, Sam heard, _Sam, my son, my child. Come to me and embrace my light. _"No!" Sam screamed.

Dean could not see or hear his brother, only felt him struggling at his side.

Without warning the blinding white light was met with an equally brilliant crisp blue light that drowned out the high pitched squeal and toppled over the surrounding trees. The air vibrated with a deep rhythmic hum. The brothers' sight and hearing was restored long enough to visualize Castiel's appearance. Sam and Dean attempted to shield their eyes as they looked on in astonishment at Castiel's stunning transformation into something… _else._

Castiel stood in the middle of the road between the Winchester brothers and the light of Lucifer, his arms outstretched, and head thrown back. Brilliant indigo light rippled around him as his clothes evaporated. The angel's skin turned a radiant shade of blue as millions of tiny feathers shaped like eyes materialized over his entire body. The indigo creature grew to an extraordinary size and began to levitate. Multiple heads sprung forth from what used to be Castiel's shoulder. There were now four heads, facing in four directions. Each head was different: a lion, an ox, an eagle and a man. The man's face still vaguely resembled Castiel a.k.a. Jimmy Novak.

Two enormous gold and jade wings erupted from his shoulder blades and arched heavenward. A second pair of wings extended horizontally out from his body. With a voice like thunder the creature that was the new Castiel called out, "He will not harm you." And, with a magnetic force, the wings drew Sam and Dean and into the folds of a multitude of eyed feathers. Sam and Dean looked down just as the ground dropped away. The feathers glowed green and yellow and closed under their feet.

All at once, the brothers were enveloped in sound that filled their ears and covered them like liquid. The feathers buzzed and vibrated. Their friction created a sound similar to a swarm of cicadas but clearer. It was absolutely hypnotic. Sam and Dean were filled with a sense of euphoria and peace. They floated weightlessly in the liquid light of the winged refuge and listened to the spirited song of Castiel's feathers. They were sheltered from the battle that raged outside; the song of the wings prevented them from even thinking of it. They could think only of safety and peace.

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed. But as each of them continued to listen to the sound, they were able to distinguish patterns. The closer they listened, the easier it was to hear that the vibration was actually the result of thousands of chattering voices. The feathers were singing. The peace of the yellow and green light levitated them as the words sung by the chattering voices became clearer. Millions of tiny voices spoke simultaneously and all said the same thing.

"Praise be to God, Who created the heavens and the earth out of nothing; Who made the angel messengers with wings: for God has power over all things."

Quite suddenly the bottom dropped out of their angel refuge and the brothers fell to the ground. The breath was knocked out of them but they were otherwise intact. It was daylight.

Dean squinted over at Sam who was also slowly getting to his feet. "Holy Highway to Heaven, Batman."

"You said it," Sam nodded. "What _was_ that?"

They looked around and instantly recognized their location: Singer Salvage. They walked up to Bobby's house. Dean spied the Impala parked out front. "Aw, Baby," he said as he kissed his hand and patted the hood of the car with it.

As soon as they stepped onto the porch the door flew open. "Dean. Sam."

"Anna," Dean said, and his voice took on an uncharacteristic softness.

"You're okay." She said to Dean, her eyes wide with emotion. He smiled warmly at her. She turned to Sam and touched his arm. "You're both okay."

Sam laughed once at the certainty of the moment. "Yeah. Cas, he-." Sam shook his head. He could hardly describe it.

"He angeled up." Dean summarized as he made his way through the door. Anna stepped aside and let him and his brother pass. "Where's Bobby?" Dean practically growled.

"In here." Bobby called from the kitchen. They converged on the kitchen. Bobby made coffee. Anna briefly explained how she had shown up during the night and angel-proofed Bobby's house. "Zack will be out for blood now that Cas has gone rogue and you're A.W.O.L." She touched Dean's shoulder and practically beamed at him. "You're safe… for now."

"What about you?" Sam asked.

"Let me worry about that," Anna answered in a tone that indicated she was probably scared but definitely didn't want to talk about it.

Finally Bobby asked Sam and Dean what had happened. They told their entire tale, from start to finish. When they had finished recounting Castiel's magical transformation, Sam asked, "So, what was it, exactly?"

"He is a cherub." Anna said.

"Like pictures of fat toddlers hanging in motel rooms?" Dean quipped.

"No, like guardians. Castiel is a warrior." Anna said austerely. Then she crossed her arms over her chest and smirked, "I used to be able to do that."

Dean smiled with admiration then asked, "The voices: what they were saying- what did it mean?"

"It's from the Koran." Bobby said.

Sam and Dean looked at Bobby with new respect.

"Impressive," Anna said.

"What? You think I've got all these books 'cause I think they look good?" Bobby cracked. Then he asked, "I hate to break up this tea-party but no one has asked the obvious question. What in the hell are we supposed to do now?"

"We fight," Anna said.

It wasn't until Dean and Bobby went looking for a book that Anna confronted Sam. "What did he say to you? What did you hear?"

Sam decided to play dumb. "What did who say?"

"Lucifer!" She demanded.

Sam took a deep breath and leaned back against the counter.

She stepped closer to him. "You're in danger, Sam."

He folded his arms across his chest. "I know."

By

Sarah Barba

9/2/09


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